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More Treasures from the Neighbors’ Cache

Lewis Bowman was a New York based architect prominent in the first quarter of the 20th Century. He worked across the country, and in a variety of historic European styles, but is most notable for his use of Jacobean and Tudor styles in Bronxville, NY. He spent a few years briefly after college in McKim, Mead, and White’s firm before moving just north of New York City to Westchester County. In 1918 he started his own firm. I tell you this because I came across these drawings recently.

I surmise that the father of my neighbor (the late John “Jack” Colgan Sr.) worked in Bowman’s firm on account of his name (appearing with the suffix “del” after it) and Bowman’s on these drawings. Does anyone know what that means in this context?

Let’s say this is the first of a few posts on this cache. The large blueprints I’ll have to photograph with some better equipment at work.

Though Bowman’s houses are often large, they are not commonly this palatial; usually they are less than 5000 square feet.

Bowman’s work was full of high quality and historically accurate fine detail. For 5 years before starting his own firm, he worked for a builder of fancy homes and developed long standing connections with the best craftsmen in the area. The interiors look warm and solid, but perhaps a bit dark. One needed only enough of an opening in the wall through which to shoot arrows at invading Visigoths. Besides, who wants a view of a moor or a fen?

I live in a Tudor of a slightly earlier era, with slightly less fine construction, but I am happy to say the unknown architect didn’t follow historic precedence on the sizing of the windows…